Glenn Close on Breaking the Mental Health Stigma

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but for actress and advocate Glenn Close, breaking the mental health stigma Is a year-round mission.

After her sister’s diagnosis with Bipolar disorder in 2010, Glenn Close vowed to use her celebrity to destigmatize mental health struggles, founding the organization Bring Change 2 Mind.

Dan Steinberg, Invision/AP

“More than being an actress, I’d like part of my legacy to be that my family and I started talking out loud and on a national platform about mental illness,” Close told Celebrity Page correspondent Arthur Kade when he caught up with her at the Time 100 Gala. “That’s another area in our life in this country that has to be paid a lot of attention [to]. It touches everyone, and I think that’s the next big movement that we have to get behind.”

Also raising awareness about mental health issues is actress Kristen Bell, who opened up about her struggles with mental illness in a 2016 interview with Sam Jones.

“I got on a prescription when I was really young to help with my anxiety and depression, and I still take it today,” Bell said. “I have no shame in that, because my mom said to me to ‘understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin.’”